Cultoons

Easy Does It (1x14)

Data de estreia: Jan 01, 1946

Easy Does It (1948, 31:15) is by far the most accomplished – and the longest – film on this disc, coming in at a healthy featurette length. Although commercial in design (for Stokey/Van Camp Foods), this Hugh Harman production, made after his split with MGM and Rudy Ising, looks every bit as good as his earlier work, though has a little difficulty completing the task of telling the story with it never particularly feeling like we are being sold something. But it’s finds like these that really make these collections more than worthwhile, and this one is pure gold, a wonderfully animated, marvellously entertaining cartoon that plays like a paean to the Mom ‘n’ Pop stores of small-town America. Genuinely heartfelt, and by turns excitingly fantasist and struck with a cold realistic streak, there’s a nice emotional message buried in the story as well as its required push for the food brand. Lengthy live-action central segment and hard sell aside, this is almost as good as a 1940s Disney special or segment from one of the Package Features, and a very good choice for this collection of Cultoons! to go out on a fine note.